1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to messaging gateway systems that may be used as gateways between computer network communication systems and mobile communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Mobile communication devices, such as cell phones, are often configured to receive electronic messages. These messages may be sent from a variety of sources and may be delivered to the mobile communication devices through a messaging gateway system.
The messaging gateway system may receive electronic messages from a variety of sources, such as from a variety of message provider systems. The messaging gateway system, however, may be limited in the amount of message traffic from the message provider systems which the messaging gateway system can receive and process.
To prevent an overload, the messaging gateway system may be configured to limit the amount of message traffic which each message provider system may send to the messaging gateway system. These limits may be fixed and may add up to the message traffic capacity of the messaging gateway system.
This configuration can suffer from inefficiencies and delays. For example, a message provider system may be receiving message traffic in an amount which is greater than the maximum amount of message traffic which has been allocated to it by the messaging gateway system. When this occurs, the message provider system may queue the messages, delaying their receipt by the mobile communication devices to whom the messages are addressed. While messages are being delayed by one message provider system, moreover, another message provider system may be delivering message traffic to the messaging gateway system at substantially below its allocated amount, thus wasting capacity in the messaging gateway system.